Talks will continue until the end of the month to try to get a controversial East Cleveland abattoir moved, councillors have agreed.

But if those talks fail, Redcar and Cleveland Council will consider serving a discontinuance notice and pursuing a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) to ensure Banaras Halal Meats Ltd (BHM) moves its slaughterhouse from Boosbeck.

Redcar and Cleveland Council’s Cabinet met today to discuss the way forward in the long-running saga.

And with up to 50 villagers looking on, the cabinet agreed an officers’ recommendation to continue talks with BHM “for a mutually acceptable solution: including relocation, if that is an option which the owners wish to pursue.”

BHM’s legal advisers had earlier confirmed the company had “committed to working with the council” and was “willing to commit to a timescale of two months for negotiations to take place, ending on September 30.”

But if those discussions produce no agreement, the cabinet is recommending to the full council - which next meets on October 9 - the serving of a Section 102 discontinuance notice, requiring the “cessation of the use of the land and buildings for the purposes of an abattoir”, and pursuing a CPO “to secure a more suitable future use of the site.”

Councillor Norman Pickthall, Cabinet member for corporate resources, told today’s meeting: “It’s clear to me the cessation of the operations needs to be as soon as possible.

"The owners have confirmed their willingness to reach a negotiated solution and have committed to try and do so before the end of this month.”

Council leader, Councillor George Dunning, stressed he had always opposed the abattoir at Boosebeck, or in any village, and felt it should be on an industrial estate, but said the council had been legally forced to allow it.

“As a former magistrate, I can say the law can sometimes be a bit of an ass,” he said.

Her husband Neville then passed around photos taken by residents in Brookside, showing trailers and bins in the slaughterhouse grounds full of animal parts.

He also played recordings made in his daughter’s bedroom of the sound of loud fans and bleating animals which, he said, came from the abattoir.

He added: “How much longer are we going to have to put up with this? It’s wrong on every level.”

Farmer Kim Walton said on one day, he saw wagons capable of bringing in about 1,800 sheep to the abattoir.

“This is not small scale - it is an industrual operation,” he said. And Gaynor Sullivan, who says she moved from Boosbeck because of the abattoir, said she knew of a property which had plunged in value from £135,000 to £66,000.

Councillor Mary Lanigan, leader of the council’s independent group, questioned whether the issue needed to be referred back to the full council, saying: “If there is no success by the end of the month, can cabinet not go straight to a CPO? Let’s not have a day’s delay.”

And Conservative group leader Councillor Valerie Halton said it was a pressing moral issue, given the council’s commitment to provide “great places to live” and improve residents’ health.

Cllr Pickthall told villagers no definitive timescale could yet be given because “it depends on the route we take.” But he added: “We will endeavour to solve your issues as soon as possible.”